University of Florida President Ben Sasse Announces Resignation

Sasse had full support of the Trustees (know some) so I find it hard to believe that such a small issue would derail a guy who appeared ready to really have a vision for UF. I am disappointed b/c even though I disagreed with some of his policies, I agreed with much of his vision. Hope it wasn’t politics (but like you, I have no first hand knowledge, only second hand conversations). In any event, wish him and his family well.

This next search will not be easy. While it is a great job, it may be difficult to find someone who wants to step into a role that has so many publicly competing voices (legislature, students, faculty, athletics, industry, etc), is going to change drastically with budgets, remote learning, etc, and has limited authority to cause change. Hope we can find a visionary who will not just manage operations but lead us through the land mines.

 

Takes courage to walk away and put family first. Wish him and his family well. However, he was a supremely poor choice to lead the university. Hope an actual/real search process takes place. Go Gators!

 

Prayers for him and his family shows how grounded he is and some things are more important.

 

No offense but you are by far the staunchest proponent of censorship on this board when it comes to athletics

All I can say is I hope they get Fuchs out asap. He’s not good for athletics. I’m sure he’s nice but our school is losing prominence in the eyes of the public due to diminished football/basketball. We need to pick it up asap

 

Well, he did hire a dean of students (Chris Summerlin) with an online PhD (Capella) and Masters from American Intercontinental (a for profit which has been sued for enticing unprepared students and offering sub-standard education.)

 

LOL. Pushing back against your incessant attacks on our team and coach is anything but censorship

 

Thirteen year old still in the house? Mother basically out of action? And doing a job that is probably 60+ hours a week minimum?

Yeah, I'd do what he is doing too. Fortunate that he has the wherewithal to do so.

 

Just my two cents as a graduate..."how he treats athletics" is pretty far down my list on what I want from a university president.

 

I’m no fan of ‘move back you suck’ — but bring back Gator Bait

 

Dean of Students not exactly an academic role. Seems a bit petty

 

Office max vs Staples

 

Shouldn't be. Athletics are an important part of the marketing of the school; especially when you brand yourself as the "Everything School" (which we are).

 

I guess we will see if any other news rolls out. I hope you are right.

But, very few people abruptly quit their jobs over a diagnosis of epilepsy in their spouse.

 

The university has gained national/global prominence for its academics and now is considered by some as one of the elite schools(New Ivy). Heads of business want graduates from UF because of this, not where our athletics program ranks.

 

Academics brings in the plaudits, Athletics brings in the donations....it would be best to be highly competitive in both.

 

The money athletics brings in pales in comparison to the money academics bring to the university. I believe that number is now in the billion/yr range.
But I agree both can be pursued aggressively.

 

Agreed, of course, but you are referring to a lot of Govt grants, Govt tuition aid, and student tuition in that academic revenue stream, all of which requires work to fulfill. An unrestricted donation or endowment are much more powerful. If UF really believes they are a on par with the ivy's, then they need to have an endowment in the same ballpark as the ivy's and right now they are light years away from that.

I don't think that Athletics should take precedence or ever will generate more funding for UF than academics, nor do I feel it should. Athletics, however, retains and generates interest in the school. All I'm saying is that the goal should be to compete at the highest level in both areas.

 

The Iveys are where there are now based solely on reputation. Nothing else. And we are not "light years" away in anything else.

 

Simply not true. Look at the $100M+ from Nvidia and from Wertheim over the last couple of years. Versus a largest donation to athletics of 12.6M: UF to receive 'record' donation of $12.6M for athletic facilities
Everyone has the right to give (or want others to give) to what they love: academics, athletics or both. I personally give to academics and the $4.5B in the last fund drive for academics proves that academics brings in the dough too. Agree that it is best to be great at both.

While I agree that an Ivy undergrad education is not all that, their graduate schools and research are the best in the world. Nobel prizes to research, they are the best funded and do the most fundamental research (see physics depts where Harvard, MIT AND Princeton are top 10 - Top universities for physics). Further, the connections of a Harvard MBA or Yale law school provide access that can wildly advance a career. Like all places, they have pockets of weakness but positing that their rankings are entirely based on “reputation” (ie the past) is grossly overstated, in my opinion. Particle physics No. 1 University in America is Harvard and that is NOT based on “reputation” but research.

 

To begin, Ivy’s have had 300 years of fundraising. Imagine someone gave Harvard $100 in 1700 and left it in account to accrue interest. How much would that account be worth today?
Secondly point—my wife has a graduate degree in drama from Yale. She was the TA for an Oscar/Tony winner. Her roommate later won a Tony in set design, and her classmates included an Oscar winning actress, an Emmy-winning actor and several others who you would know. NYU, Northwestern, and Carnegie-Mellon—all private schools—are the only comparables.